This may seem elementary to many of you, but we've had many new users sign up recently, and I've seen virtually nothing on Steemit explaining savings accounts. This post is meant to educate newly-born Steemians.
You just signed up and are getting acclimated to the Steemit platform. You click on your wallet, and you see there's an option for "savings." Is there a difference between having my Steem/Steem Dollars in savings versus not in savings? You may ask.
My wallet says "savings" is subject to a 3 day withdrawal period. Do I transfer to savings to avoid impulse buys?
That is an option, but it's not the purpose of savings.
The real reason for savings accounts
If your account gets hacked, your Steem Power is safe, but the thief will have access to all of your Steem and Steem Dollars. That is, unless you have it in savings. If you have it in savings, the thief will have to wait three days before it can be transferred to another account. They'd have to wait seven days before they could transfer any Steem Power.
These three days should be plenty of time to recover your account or change your passwords, locking the hacker out of your account.